San Francisco health care providers may soon begin administering Covid-19 vaccines to grocery workers, teachers and residents over 75, according to health officials during a news conference on Tuesday.
“Most of the frontline intensive care team at General Hospital Zuckerberg San Francisco and Laguna Honda has been vaccinated,” said Dr. Grant Colfax, director of public health in San Francisco. “And after today, more than 90 percent of Laguna Honda residents will have received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.”
Colfax did not give a firm date on when the next phase would begin or how it would unfold. He stressed that the vaccines will be distributed by health professionals like Kaiser, UCSF and Sutter Health. And in response to a reporter’s question, he said the city would “explore” whether large vaccination sites would be faster than what now exists at different providers.
The city will also receive vaccines to administer to those in its care or who are not insured. He did not elaborate on how the city’s vaccines would be distributed, but said they are now working with Walgreens to vaccinate residents of Laguna Honda.
Colfax said the Department of Public Health received 30,000 doses, which it distributed throughout the city. After that shipment, the state began sending doses directly to health professionals. He did not have these figures.
Colfax also cannot say how many of the city’s 80,000 frontline health workers – the highest priority group in the state’s tiered distribution plan – were vaccinated because they were vaccinated by their own employers. The city vaccinated only the staff at its hospital, Zuckerberg San Francisco General, as well as the approximately 700 residents of Laguna Honda.
UCSF is currently vaccinating up to 1,100 people a day, according to Dr. Joshua Adler, clinical director of UCSF.
Adler added that he hopes the hospital will be able to increase its vaccination rate and that, so far, vaccine supply has been able to keep up with the rate of vaccine administration.
“At the moment, we continue to focus our efforts on vaccinating health workers primarily and then we hope to move on to additional groups in the coming weeks,” said Adler.
Colfax also said that those next in line for the vaccine will be determined by the state.
“We are waiting for the state to complete the next phase that proposes to include essential workers, such as public security, grocery stores, teachers and people over 75,” said Colfax.
According to a report by the New York Times, California vaccinated more than 450,000 people, about 1.2% of the state’s population, more than any other state or territory by vaccine count, but near the bottom of the list based on the percentage of the total population. The Northern Mariana Islands, having vaccinated 5.7 percent of its 57,000 residents.
Colfax also shared updates on the new ICU case rates and capacity.
“We are averaging 237 new cases of Covid-19 every day,” said Colfax, adding that this number is high, but an improvement on the average of 290 new cases daily in mid-December.
In terms of ICU capacity, the Bay Area region currently has only 5.9% availability, keeping us below the state’s home stay limit of 15%, according to Colfax. San Francisco is currently doing much better than the region, with a 35 percent local ICU availability, but Colfax also warned that the ICU’s bed capacity in the city may soon decline.
“Although we now have these ICU beds in San Francisco, it is possible, with our regional and state increase, that these ICU capacity numbers will drop dramatically,” said Colfax. “Perhaps because of a worsening of our local situation, or because of the needs of the region or the state.”
Four people outside of San Francisco are currently being treated in city hospitals as a result of nearby counties exceeding hospital capacity, Colfax said, and more can come.
“Although we have care available and people need care, it is the right moral and ethical thing to do to provide care when asked,” said Colfax.